Is it irrational to have a huge fear of one day running out of metaphors/similes to use?

Kitty Pryde

12-24-2009, 12:43 AM

To rephrase your question,

Is it rational to believe you are capable of writing down every possible simile in the universe?

kuwisdelu

12-24-2009, 12:45 AM

I think this whenever I look at some of my old stories and think "I can't possibly top that."

Inevitably, I do.

Try not to think about it.

NeuroFizz

12-24-2009, 01:12 AM

Is it irrational to have a huge fear of one day running out of metaphors/similes to use?
Fear not. As a collective intellect, we humans are not really that bright that we will run out of meaningful associations. Ditto with individual intellects. If nothing else, we will always be able to come up with some associative bathroom humor--with millisecond latencies.

veinglory

12-24-2009, 01:15 AM

Listening to 'Pat Novak for Hire' taught me that there is no end to the supply of similies and metaphors.

kuwisdelu

12-24-2009, 02:37 AM

Ditto with individual intellects.

I take this as a challenge.

Libbie

12-24-2009, 02:42 AM

Eh. You're fine. Running out of similes is like...like...

Oh, shit.

Kitty Pryde

12-24-2009, 02:44 AM

Eh. You're fine. Running out of similes is like...like...

Oh, shit.

oh noooooooo!

kuwisdelu

12-24-2009, 02:46 AM

Eh. You're fine. Running out of similes is like...like...

Oh, shit.

Like running out of shit.

You can always make more.

Matera the Mad

12-24-2009, 07:56 AM

I have a huge fear of running into too many.

HUGE.

Jamesaritchie

12-24-2009, 08:29 PM

Does anyone actualy look for metaphors and similies? I can't write that way. I'll just be writing along, minding my own business, and a metaphor or similie emerges on the page.

But if I sit down and actually try to come up with one, I simply can't do it. At least not one that I'd dare use.

icerose

12-24-2009, 08:33 PM

I try to avoid metaphors and similies myself but they tend to sneak in anyway.

Idkwiaowiw

12-24-2009, 10:23 PM

To rephrase your question,

Is it rational to believe you are capable of writing down every possible simile in the universe?

Okay, that helps calm me down. Thanks for putting it in perspective for me. I needed that.

Autodidact

12-24-2009, 10:40 PM

Is it irrational to have a huge fear of one day running out of metaphors/similes to use?

Why, that's as crazy as a goldfish in a blender.

Tedium

12-25-2009, 10:45 AM

To rephrase your question,

Is it rational to believe you are capable of writing down every possible simile in the universe?

:Thumbs:

SirOtter

12-25-2009, 10:58 AM

Listening to 'Pat Novak for Hire' taught me that there is no end to the supply of similies and metaphors.

LOL That was a great show.

LOG

12-25-2009, 11:11 AM

Like running out of shit.

You can always make more.
Should make a quote out of that...you know what I think I will.

Libbie

12-25-2009, 08:41 PM

Does anyone actualy look for metaphors and similies? I can't write that way. I'll just be writing along, minding my own business, and a metaphor or similie emerges on the page.

I don't look for them, either, but when I re-read my stuff it's loaded with the little buggers. Usually I like them, though, so they get to stay. My writing is very atmospheric, and metaphor helps that a lot. Simile can be touching and poignant, especially if it emerges naturally and isn't shoehorned in.

But if I sit down and actually try to come up with one, I simply can't do it. At least not one that I'd dare use.

Same. The exception being funny similes. I can pop those out of nowhere during conversations. This has given me a somewhat undeserved reputation as a hilarious jokester, and the people who know me face-to-face as a "funny person" are always shocked when they read my writing and find out how moody, dark-themed, and depressing it is. My writing almost never ends with the MC achieving his or her goal, and is therefore kind of uniformly sad. Even the one humorous story I've written ends with the MC being eaten by a giant demonic pig.

So my penchant for knee-slapping similes in conversation has set people up with the expectation that I write upbeat, clever, humorous fiction. So, so wrong. I can't even stand to read the stuff. People will cringe, but I can barely get through a Douglas Adams novel. I just really don't like funny fiction.

I am an enigma, wrapped in a mystery, shelled in a riddle, or something like that.

But the point is: Similes. They're crazy like that.

S.J.

12-29-2009, 12:53 AM

We used to have to write lists and lists of similes in school (shudder), so I don't think I'll ever run out. Running out of good similes, or original ones - that's another matter.

NeuroFizz

12-29-2009, 01:11 AM

Twirling a simile around the tongue, stretching it to see how it snaps back, and giving it a good run around the cerebral racetrack, is likely to bring it to fiction exhausted and replete with stretch marks. But doing all of that may just make for interesting poetry...

Idkwiaowiw

12-29-2009, 09:51 PM

Running out of good similes, or original ones - that's another matter.